The Greater Kansas City Community Foundation has released
Giving in Kansas City, an examination of nonprofit organizations and the charitable contributions they receive to support their work. The research shows Kansas City ranks higher on charitable giving than the national average.
Conducted by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University with funding support from the Kauffman Foundation, the study measured four forms of charitable giving to more than 7,500 nonprofit organizations in the Greater Kansas City area. The report looks at individual giving, bequest giving, foundation grants, and corporate donations.
The report highlights the following key findings:
- Total estimated charitable giving of $2.15 billion by Kansas City-area donors in 2007— including households, foundations, bequests, and corporations—represents nearly the same share of total giving as the Kansas City region’s share of the U.S. population (0.7 percent of giving compared to 0.7 percent of the population).
- Of the $2.15 billion contributed in 2007 by all Kansas City-area donors, an estimated 69 percent of dollars ($1.47 billion) remained in the Greater Kansas City region.
- About three-quarters (72.4 percent) of Kansas City-area households made charitable donations in 2007. With an average donation of $3,375 per donor household, Kansas City exceeds the national average of $2,247 (as estimated for 2007) by 50 percent.
- A large share of charitable giving in Kansas City is directed through foundations. In this region, 18 percent of all contributed dollars are paid in grants, compared to less than 13 percent nationally.
- Religion received the largest share of the donated dollars from Kansas City-area donors in 2007, at 42 percent of the total estimated giving in the region.
- After religion, the next highest shares of donations went to human service charities (16 percent), public-society benefit (14 percent) and education (13 percent). Public-society benefit includes United Way, Jewish federation, and other combined funds.
